The spelling of Scriabin in Russian is Скрябин. The name is transliterated into English in various ways, with “Scriabin” being the most common English spelling. 

• Cyrillic spelling: Скрябин
• Common English spelling: Scriabin
• Alternative English transliterations: Skrjabin, Skryabin, Scriabin

I was piano accompanist for a French hornist at the Conservatory where I trained, so maybe that’s why this sparked my interest in it.

I had seen this in some performances.  I think Rachmaninov used it in one of his symphonic pieces.  The score says “bells up” and the French hornists raise their horn up high at their head, as they’re doing in this performance below:

In the video immediately above, bells up was used for the choral finale of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“The Resurrection”).

But is bells up mostly for show?  Mostly, I think, based on what I’ve read about it.  And that’s why it’s controversial amongst French hornist.  Some players refuse to do it.  Like the player sitting over on the far left for the Berlin performance.

It was used in the Skrjabin Piano Concerto and sometimes the camera will show it.  The brass section — where the French hornists are — are in the back of the Orchestra.  Other times you can’t see it because the camera is off somewhere else.  Correction:  the camera does show one French Hornist in the Deutschland performance — I think it’s the same place where others bells up — and he was not raising his horn either.

It was used in a performance of the Skrjabin with the Berliner Philharmoniker.  They had four French hornists.  Three of them were “bells up” but the guy on the end kept his bell down, apparently refusing to do it.

The right hand stays in the bell and doing so is part of playing the instrument.  Those who oppose this technique say, “Just play louder” which they can do.   Bells up is to give a louder and brassier sound.

In an Iceland performance (video below), they had four French hornist and at least two of them kept their right hand in the bell as they did the “bells up.”

Mahler loved and used large orchestras so it was quite impressive to see 10 French horn players raise their horns as they’re doing in the image above.  Sometimes, the wind section will also bells up to create a special effect.

I mentioned the Berlin performance, the pianist for the Skrjabin from Berlin was Daniil what’s it.  I never care to promote him, that’s why I call him what’s it.  He’s the guy I refer to as the Dracula Pianist because of his loco, insane facial expressions during his performance, which the classical music armchair critics quickly fall for using the thinking, “he’s so much into the feeling of his music.”  (roll eyes)   What he’s into is needless theatrics and playing to the cameras.  Would he do all of that facial nonsense if no cameras were there and no one could see his face up close?  One can be into the feeling of one’s music without tacky needless theatrics.  Yes, the classical music armchair critics — the self-appointed musical authorities — are in lockstep in falling for his antics.  To me, he looks like a nut.  You don’t need to do all that stuff to play a piano concerto, bro.  Where did you train?  Rhetorical question since I already know where he trained, and one would think someone in Moscow or at the Cleveland Institute of Music would have told you that.  He and his hair also bounce around on the piano bench as he plays.

My choral friend watched him for a few minutes play the Skrjabin and asked:  “How does he pedal with all that bouncing around?”  I don’t know.  Then I showed him a distinguished pianist who played the same concerto and he was not doing all of that show biz antics stuff.  The other two pianists (from Iceland and Deutschland) weren’t bouncing around at all or making insane facial expressions, or gazing at the ceiling with limpid eyes and quivering lips — ugh!, these pianists and their needless antics to apparently try to impress stupid people who don’t know that a pianist doesn’t need to do all of that rubbish in order to play the piano!  But what was up on the ceiling that he finds so interesting as he held the last chord of the piece?  You don’t see the orchestral musicians doing all of that nonsense and they’re just as much into the music .  No, it’s just Daniil.  Some of these young pianists act like they’re off the latch, and Daniil what’s it is one of them.  I normally deliberately don’t watch him and only did so in this instance to see if the French Horns were bells up at the end of the Skrjabin.

I’ll embed two performances where you won’t see the pianists doing any of that rubbish.  One is from Iceland (I’ll post the third movement since that’s where you can see the bells up) and then one from Deutschland (the entire concerto in this case, and you can’t see the French hornists in this one, but you can see the pianist is not looking like he belongs in an insane institution and is not bouncing around on the bench trying to generate sweat to get his hair all wet.

Wet hair = intended to make the piece look difficult to play.

But weren’t you trained like the rest of us to “make it look easy?” I don’t have the patience for this nonsense.

Here’s the Iceland performance (third movement):

And here’s the Deutschland performance (complete concerto):